Judge abruptly recesses 9/11 hearings at Guantánamo

The judge in the Sept. 11 conspiracy trial abruptly cleared the court Thursday during questioning of a former prison camps commander about what intelligence groups were at work on this remote base.

At issue in the hearing is who and what organizations influenced Navy Rear Adm. David B. Woods as he restricted attorney-client communications ahead of last May’s arraignment of the five men accused of orchestrating the Sept. 11, 2001 hijackings and 2,976 murders.

Woods had already testified that nobody ever told him that the CIA had input into an order that regulated the work of defense attorneys for the 9/11 accused and other former CIA captives. Cmdr Walter Ruiz, defense lawyer for a Saudi defendant, was asking the admiral what intelligence groups he knew operated at Guantánamo during Woods’ 10-month tenure, which ended a year ago.